ALEC has worked with legislators to pass bills ranging from issues as diverse as stripping unionized workers of their rights to to making it harder for low-income citizens to vote. It is usually able to do so because it hands its corporate-written template bills to state legislators and gets them passed without any public scrutiny as to the origin of this legislation.

Late last week, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) decided that corporate front groups like ALEC should not be able to write his state’s laws. Dayton decided to veto a series of “tort reform” bills that would’ve restricted the rights of citizens to sue to hold big corporations responsible. In a press conference discussing his vetoes, Dayton condemned ALEC for providing the templates for the bills. “I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations,” said Dayton. Watch it:

ALEC has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months. In November, a Florida legislator introduced a bill that still had ALEC’s name written into it — they had apparently forgotten to edit out the organization’s branding from the legislation before entering it into the record, as is usually the case. To learn more about the secretive corporate front group, visit www.alecexposed.org.

Republic Report is dedicated to rooting out the corruption that is so corrosive to American values. We investigate and uncover the buying and selling of politicians and of institutions entrusted with upholding the public interest. We expose how big money distorts major policy decisions – harming our economy and our people.